Coach is the new ‘cool girl’ brand for Gen Z

• After years of sluggish sales, Coach is seeing regained interest from Gen Z consumers.
• Gen Z increased its spending on Coach by 10% so far this year, according to a new report.
• The uptick in consumer spending follows on the heels of Coach partnering with rapper Lil Nas X.

Coach has emerged as the new “cool girl” brand for GenZers. 

According to a consumer spending report from Earnest Analytics, consumers under the age of 25 increased their spending on the Coach brand by 10% from January through June of this year. Earnest tracks individual, anonymous credit and debit card data to look at consumer spending trends. 

The bump in interest from younger consumers is exactly what the brand hoped for. After years of sluggish sales, the company has made significant changes to boost its brand image. That includes partnering with ‘Riverdale’ actress Camila Mendes, Japanese model Koki, and rapper Lil Nas X and launching Y2K-inspired campaigns. 

Once self-touted as “accessible luxury,” Coach has since updated that message and its offerings to reinvent itself. In the fall of 2022, Joon Silverstein, Coach’s senior VP of global and North American marketing and sustainability, told Vogue Business the brand would focus on “expressive luxury,” instead.

The idea was to shift the brand from “exclusivity to inclusivity, from status and ownership to emotions and values,” Silverstein told Vogue Business. 

In doing so, it hoped to tap into Gen Z and Millennial shoppers’ values and re-elevate its luxury status. Coach CEO Todd Kahn told Business of Fashion that the accessible luxury angle “put us in a box that we don’t live in anymore.”

The brand has since launched a line with Nas X, and expanded its sustainability efforts with its Coachtopia collection – a line of recycled and restored Coach products. 

And these changes have paid off. Its parent company, Tapestry, which also owns Kate Spade New York and Stuart Weitzman, reported stronger-than-expected sales numbers in its most recent earnings. Coach, the company’s largest revenue generator of the three brands, saw net sales increase by 11% to $1.14 billion during the quarter versus the same period the year before. The company is due to report its next quarterly results later this month. 

Coach’s influence is poised to accelerate. On Thursday, Tapestry announced that it is acquiring rival company Capri Holdings for $8.5 billion. Capri owns Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, and Versace.

This acquisition could better position Tapestry to compete with the likes of LVMH and Kering and expand its international reach.